


Making the Rounds

by Kiaxet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 02:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7416355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiaxet/pseuds/Kiaxet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Shiro has trouble dealing with his past with the Galra, he heads to engineering for company. Pidge and Hunk...aren't quite sure what to do when he just...hovers. (Cuddles. Cuddles forever.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making the Rounds

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a prompt fill for the Voltron kink meme (or actually a secondary prompt fill; the initial fill is the art by tumblr user pentapoda). Both the prompt and the art are linked at the end of the piece. Enjoy!

The first night was weird, but not terribly out of the ordinary. Pidge had a habit of heading down to her lion’s bay or to engineering - they tended to be quiet places to work, and she was forever looking for new information. Hunk joined her most nights, reading through engineering schematics or figuring out new and exciting (read: terrifying) dishes that could be made in the ship’s kitchen. They were accustomed to being interrupted on occasion: Keith wanting help tweaking the gladiator’s programming, or Lance wanting to come down and talk someone’s ear off, or Coran...doing the exact same thing as Lance, actually, albeit a little more helpful when it came to ancient Altean tech.

So when Shiro showed up and leaned against the doorframe, it was business as usual. “Hey, Shiro,” Hunk greeted him with a wave, looking up from his viewscreen. “What’s up?”

“Not much. Just making the rounds.”

“Huh. Cool.” Hunk went back to his schematic, and Pidge looked up long enough to give Shiro a nod. He looked tired, she noticed, but it was late. This was probably the last thing he was doing before bed.

By the fourth night Shiro came by, Pidge was starting to notice a pattern. By the ninth, she was starting to get worried.

Evidently she wasn’t alone in that sentiment, as Hunk snuck into the hangar, looking over his shoulder. “Is Shiro here?”

“Not yet.” Pidge shrugged. “It’s a toss-up whether he’ll come back tonight.”

“Oh. Okay,” he started, sitting down and pulling up his viewscreen. “Because I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s  _really weird_ that he just keeps showing up and not saying anything. That’s weird, right? It’s not just me? ‘Cause at first I thought I was doing something _wrong_ , but I mean, if I _was_ , he’d just do that whole Space Dad thing about how he wants us all to be at our best and it’s for the good of the team and how about I try something else, and he’s not doing that. So. Weird, right?”

“Yeah, it is pretty weird,” Pidge murmured thoughtfully. “And- have you noticed he always looks tired when he comes in?”

“Well, yeah, but Shiro always looks tired.It’s like how Keith always looks angry, or Lance always looks like he thinks he’s just told the world’s funniest joke when he hasn’t. He’s just got resting tired face or something.”

“No, I mean _really_ tired.”

This caused a bit more consideration. “You know what, yeah. You’re right. That’s weird, too.” A beat. “I mean, it’s weird that he’s tired, not that you’re right.”

“I know what you meant. If he comes in tonight, we should keep an eye on him.”

“Yeah, okay.” Hunk settled in with his viewscreen, already reading through schematics, an exercise made more difficult by the fact that they were all in Altean. “Can’t hurt, right?”

Shiro did come in, as usual. He leaned against the doorframe, as usual. He didn’t need anything, as usual. He looked tired, as usual.

About thirty minutes in, the string of _as usuals_ stopped when Pidge looked up from her work to check on Shiro and found him head down, eyes closed, dozing against the doorframe. For a moment, she marveled that he could sleep upright; then common sense took over. They really needed to get him some _actual_ sleep. Now how could she get Hunk’s attention without waking Shiro up?

Waving silently didn’t work; she couldn’t yell or it would wake Shiro; and the only thing close enough for her to throw was a set of wrenches. She eyed them, picked out the smallest one (still a good four inches of metal), and aimed for Hunk’s lap. Soft landing, no harm, no foul, right?

...or she could wing it straight into his shoulder. Oops.

“Ow!” Hunk jerked upright as the wrench clattered to the floor, looking over his shoulder at Pidge, mouth open to continue. It stayed open for a moment as she gestured frantically for him to _be quiet_  and then pointed to Shiro. Shiro had shifted a bit but, fortunately, was still asleep.

Hunk turned around to look, mouth formed into a silent o of recognition. Oh. Gotcha. Shiro’s asleep.

She waved again to get his attention and mimed a few more motions: pointing at Shiro, folding her hands together and laying her head on them, pointing to her shoulder, and pointing at Hunk. Let him sleep on your shoulder.

Hunk furrowed his brow and tilted his head. Wait, what?

Pidge stopped herself just short of making a frustrated noise and instead gave Hunk a pointed look, repeating her miming. Let. Shiro. Sleep. On. Your. Shoulder.

It took a moment for that to sink in, but recognition dawning was a beautiful thing. Good thing Hunk was quick on the uptake. He reached for his viewscreen, changing the display to something that definitely wasn’t schematics, and turned back around. “Hey, Shiro!”

Shiro jerked awake with a start, wide-eyed, and whipped around to look at them. “Huh- what?”

Subtle.

“I wanna show you something. D’you mind taking a look?” Hunk patted the ground next to him.

Shiro, being Shiro, took a moment to process, then crossed the hangar and took a seat next to Hunk. “Sure. What’s up?”

Hunk proceeded to talk his ear off about the potential menu while they were on this planet, waxing poetic about everything they could try, wondering if they had anything that could possibly measure up to chocolate, anything he could think of. The flaw in the plan became apparent fairly early, at least in Pidge’s eyes: Shiro, being a Good Leader, was sitting up and paying attention despite being exhausted. Well, time to bring in the cavalry.

She hopped off the ledge she’d been perched on and crossed the room. “Hunk, I can’t see,” she complained, leaning her entire ninety-five pounds on Shiro. “You’re holding the screen weird.” Over the top of Shiro’s head, she shot Hunk a look: _play along_.

Hunk blinked, then adopted his best I-Know-Best-Because-I’m-Lance expression. “Nope. Sorry, Pidge, this is art. It works best at this angle.”

Pidge gave a long-suffering sigh and winked at Hunk. Shiro, ever the peacemaker, tried to intervene. “Hunk, are you sure you can’t move that just a little?”

“No, it’s fine,” Pidge said in her best defeated tone. “Shiro, can you just lean your head over a little?”

“Like this?” He tilted his head a bit.

“A little more...a little more...” She kept it up until Shiro’s head was resting on Hunk’s shoulder. “Perfect! Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” The My Teammates Are Weird hesitation was in there, but Pidge didn’t care - it just meant the plan was working. Hunk took his cue and started up about local food again. She had to admire his skills as an improvisor - he was talking about stuff she’d never heard of before and making it sound good. (She wouldn’t be surprised if he was making it all up, honestly.) After a few moments, she tapped his back and gestured silently at Shiro - his eyes had closed and his breathing had evened out. Hunk gave her a thumbs up and a grin and went right back to his engineering work. She stood up - slowly, so as not to disturb Shiro - to retrieve her tablet and settled back in next to them. Mission accomplished.

* * *

 

“Yeah, he’s always been like that, ever since the Garrison” Keith shrugged. “He doesn’t like to be alone when things are rough. He doesn’t really want to _do_ anything with anyone - he just kind of wants to be there.”

“Oh.” Pidge had come to Keith the morning after she and Hunk had finally gotten Shiro to sleep (and he’d woken up several hours later, embarrassed but looking a lot better). Keith had known Shiro before the lions had brought them all together; she figured he’d know more about this than what she and Hunk had managed to figure out. “Yeah, Hunk and I never really ask him to do anything when he’s down there.”

“And that’s why he keeps coming back.”

“Huh.” Pidge thought that one over. “You know, this would have been really good to know a week ago.”

“I could’ve told you a week ago if you’d bothered asking.” Boy, Keith sure wasn’t amused.

“Yeah, but a week ago it wasn’t weird.”

“Do you always wait for things to get weird before you say anything?”

Pidge crossed her arms. “My squad at the academy was Hunk and _Lance_. And now I’m a Paladin of Voltron. My threshold for _weird_ is a little different than most people’s.”

“Point.” Keith smiled, one of the soft ones he usually reserved for Shiro when he thought nobody was looking, and Pidge blushed. (Just a little.) “Anyway, thanks for helping Shiro. He’ll never say it, but he really needs it.”

“Yeah, well, we’re putting a cot in the maintenance bay for next time.”

“He’ll never use it.”

Pidge just smirked. “That’s what he thinks.”

* * *

 

[The prompt in question](https://voltron-kink.dreamwidth.org/1161.html?thread=2185#cmt2185)

 


End file.
